Ellensburg, WA – Closing out their weekend road trip, the Simon Fraser University men’s basketball team suffered a loss to the Central Washington University Wildcats on Saturday night, 96-79 leaving them with a 1-1 record on their trip after defeating Northwest Nazarene on Thursday.
“We made tired mistakes tonight down the stretch and did not get back in transition,” said Head Coach James Blake. “They are very athletic and feed off of turnovers and sloppy offensive execution. If we play team offence and move the ball we can play with anyone in the league.”
Sango Niang (Paris, France) and David Gebru (Seattle, WA) both had big nights, scoring 22 points a piece.
Justin Cole (Los Angeles, CA) also hit double-digits adding 14 in the contest as Ibrahim Appiah (Montreal, QC) chipped in 12.
“We have to do a better job limiting Mark McLaughlin touches next time we play them. He is the best scorer in the league and he went off tonight,” added Blake.
McLaughlin earned 40 points on the night and JB Pillard followed McLaughlin, adding 21.
SFU battled through the game, forcing 12 Central Washington turnovers while committing only nine.
The Clan also worked off Wildcat fouls, shooting 82.4 percent from the free-throw line.
The teams traded baskets and the lead through the first four minutes of play, until a tip-in from Appiah gave the Clan a 9-8 edge with 16:02 on the clock.
SFU would hold on to the lead for the next nine minutes of the half.
However, working off a Clan technical foul, CWU earned a 32-30 lead with 7:07 remaining until the halftime.
With 1:16 left in the first half, SFU went cold on the court, allowing the Wildcats to use a 12-0 run to bring the score to 46-32.
Expanding the deficit to 15, Central Washington led 50-35 going in to the locker rooms.
SFU fought hard coming out of the break, kicking off a 14-6 run in the first five minutes and narrowing the Wildcat’s lead to 56-49.
Continuing to whittle away the home team’s lead, a 7-0 Clan run brought the visitors within one point with 9:28 left in the game, 67-66.
Despite SFU’s tough early second half effort, they were not able to overcome Central Washington.
The defeat drops the Clan’s record to 1-8 in the GNAC, and 8-9 on the season overall.
The team will now return to the West Gym to kick-off a three-game home stand. SFU will first battle the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves on Thursday, January 30 at 5:15 p.m. to kick-off a double header that will end with the women’s team hosting Seattle Pacific.
SOURCE: SFU ATHLETICS
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